Benjamin Lurye and Chani Werely to Star in THE LAST FIVE YEARS at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival

Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival has revealed the cast for the upcoming production of The Last Five Years, running from June 12 to June 30 in the Schubert Theatre at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University.

The Last Five Years, referred to as a "two-hander," will feature actors Benjamin Luryeand Chani Werely portraying the characters Jamie and Cathy, respectively. Both members of the Actors' Equity Union, Lurye’s recent roles include Fabrizio in The Light in the Piazza at Houston’s Opera in the Heights, Adolfo Pirelli in Sweeney Todd at Theatre Under the Stars, and Max in A Comedy of Tenors at Bristol Riverside Theatre. Werely’s regional credits include roles at Signature Theatre, Folger Theatre, Kennedy Center, and most recently Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Olney Theatre Center. 

Directing the production is Jason King Jones, PSF’s artistic director who directed last season’s highly lauded The Tempest. Both Luyre and Werely were known to Jones from his tenure as senior associate artistic director at Maryland’s Olney Theatre Center, where he was also artistic director of the National Players, the country’s longest-running touring theater company. “The music director (Walter “Bobby” McCoy) and I have a prior relationship with the actors,” Jones shared. “That mutual trust comes in handy, especially with a two-person show.” 

McCoy, a noted Helen Hayes Award-wining musical director, who directed last season’s PSF production of In the Heights, brings his expertise from a long resume of productions including recent projects in New York of Xanadu and The World Goes ‘Round (The Mac-Haydn Theatre). Select upcoming projects include The Drowsy Chaperone (Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre) and Beautiful (Olney Theatre Center).

The Last Five Years will perform in the Festival’s intimate Schubert Theatre. “This show makes a lot of sense there,” said Jones. “The actors along with several musicians will be visible to the audience during the entire show. They’re part of the architecture.” Jones added, “It’s the perfect scale. The Festival is fortunate to have two theatres that offer so many possibilities.” 

The Last Five Years, first staged in Chicago in 2001 and then produced in 2002 Off-Broadway in a production starring Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott, has become a staple of regional theaters not only in the United States, but across the globe. The 90-minute love story follows two aspiring artists in New York City who fall in and out of love over the course of five years. Jamie, a writer, has just fallen in love. Cathy, an aspiring actress, is mourning the end of their relationship five years in the future. Jamie’s arc is in chronological order, but Cathy’s moves in reverse. They meet in the middle when they decide to marry. The entirely sung-through musical’s emotional songs progress us through the love story.

Written and composed by Jason Robert Brown, who first entered the New York theatre scene in 1995 with Songs for a New World, and is a Tony Award-winner for his musicals Parade and The Bridges of Madison County, may just be “the best musical-theatre composer alive at this moment,” shared Jones. “Which is what drew me to include The Last Five Years in PSF’s 33rd season line-up.”

The Production Sponsors for the The Last Five Years are Yvonne Payne and Edward Spitzer, and the Co-Sponsors are Lutron and The Martin Guitar Charitable Foundation.

The Festival’s 2024 Season Sponsors are Lee and Dolly Butz. The Associate Season Sponsors are Linda Lapos and Paul Wirth, Kathleen Kund Nolan and Timothy E. Nolan, the Szarko Family, and Harry C. Trexler Trust.

Single tickets, subscriptions, and packages can be purchased online at pashakespeare.org, or by calling the box office at 610.282.WILL [9455], ext. 1, or in person at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University, in Center Valley, PA.

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